Movie Review: Pan PAN

“The little one, he wears the pan.” we’re glad that this particular take on the famous Peter Pan is set out to be an origin story, unlike the cartoon version or previous movies. He has high hopes the one who wears the pan will bring music to his ears.

 

Pan tells the tale of Peter (Levi Miller), a mischievous young orphan who is captured by Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman) and finds himself in magical Neverland. There, he will discover his destiny – to be the saviour of the magical island and forever be known as Peter Pan.

 

To say that Pan is a twisted fairytale like Maleficent and Snow White and the Huntsman wouldn’t be right, but it did have a deepness about it that made it more than just a children’s story. The tale’s moral of believing in yourself to achieve success is played out throughout the flick.

 

The movie is visually stunning, and watching it in 3D we were awed by the beautiful landscapes, skies and seas thats on display. We almost feel like we’re flying with Peter, and that’s not something the writer would say about any average 3D movie. It was truly beautiful.

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The on-screen chemistry between Peter and Hook (Garrett Hedlund) was believable, but we had hoped the two of them would have more fun with each other. The writer knows only a little about Peter Pan, but is he not the same boy who has a lot of fun?

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Golden Globe winner Hugh Jackman plays Blackbeard and we wish that his intention of living for all eternity would be more evident. Sure, he says that he wants to live forever a few times over, but there was no real trace that this man would do anything and everything to be immortal. We waited for Blackbeard to hold us to a vice grip, to make us fear him, for he was the ruler of his sick version of Neverland. That moment never came. No wonder Peter’s never afraid of him – we aren’t as well. He’s even the cause of a number of the humorous moments that had many laughing.

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We also couldn’t come to grips with how quickly some very important scenes went by. Pan had no real gap in the story, but it would have been so much better if there was better character and story development. We’re still wondering how the map to the treasure was so quickly found by Smiegel (Adeel Akhtar), why Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara) is important to Hook, and poignantly pondering which of the thousands of fairies was Tinker Bell, despite her brief appearance (Unfortunately not in the iconic little green dress popularized by Disney).

 

Unfortunately, this origin story will simply be a forgettable one. For die hard Peter Pan fans, it’s still best to play Peter Pan from your old CDs, and for newbies, it’s not a strong tug to start loving the boy who could fly.

 

[xrr rating=2.5/5 display_as=textstars label=”Our Rating:”]

 

Information

Release Date: 8 October 2015

 

Runtime: 112 minutes

 

Language: English

 

Rating: PG – Some frightening scenes and violence

 

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

 

Director: Joe Wright

 

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Levi Miller, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Adeel Akhtar, Nonso Anozie, Amanda Seyfried, Kathy Burke, Lewis MacDougall, Cara Delevingne